1. Field of the Invention
The inventions relate generally to apparatus and methods for communicating with data networks.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
This section introduces aspects that may help facilitate a better understanding of the inventions. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is prior art or what is not prior art.
In many ordinary situations, a user mobile may be located in access regions for a plurality of data networks. For example, the user may be simultaneously in the access regions of two different types of data networks, e.g., a CDMA cellular telephone network and a wireless WIFI data network. Typically, accessing a data network involves performing an initial setup process in which data is transmitted between the user's mobile terminal and the data network-to-be-accessed. The transmitted data may include, e.g., authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) data, and/or other data. Often, some such data is processed, as received, and stored by an AAA server of the data network to-be-accessed.
Even though a user may be simultaneously located in the access areas of multiple data networks, the user may be only able to access one of the data networks with his/her mobile terminal. For example, the user's mobile terminal may be configured to communicate with only one of the data networks, e.g., because his/her mobile terminal is configured as a GSM cellular terminal and thus, cannot communicate with a local CDMA cellular network. The multiple data networks may be wireless and/or wired data networks. Indeed, a user may find that he or she is simultaneously located in access regions of a set of data networks that communicate with users according to the GSM, CDMA, GPRS, WiFi, Bluetooth, and/or another IEEE WLAN 802.11 standard.